Oriented strand board (OSB) is a wood product formed from layered wafers of wood oriented in a particular pattern. For example, conventional OSB includes top and bottom layers of wood wafers with the longitudinal axes of the wafers aligned substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the board. Conventional OSB also includes a central layer disposed between the top and bottom layers with the longitudinal axes of wafers aligned substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the board.
As part of the OSB manufacturing process, manufacturers utilize waferizing machinery, such as ring strander devices or disk flaker devices to shave logs, such as aspen, yellow pine, or white birch, into thin wafers in a procedure termed waferizing. Taking ring strander devices as an example, typical ring strander devices include a clamping portion and a drum having between twenty-four and forty-four cutting assemblies disposed within the drum. In use, the log clamping portion receives a set of logs and secures a portion of the logs within the ring strander device such that a longitudinal axis of each log is substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the drum. As the drum rotates, the clamping portion holds the logs against the cutting assemblies of the drum thereby allowing the cutting assemblies to shave the logs into wafers.
Ring strander devices can utilize different types of cutting assemblies to form the wood wafers. For example, one type of cutting assembly or knife pack, as manufactured by Simonds International Corporation, is illustrated in FIG. 1. The cutting assembly 10 is configured as a three-piece assembly including a plate knife 12, a counter knife 14, and a scoring tip holder 16. While a side view of the cutting assembly 10 is shown, the cutting assembly 10 has a length of about 28 inches. In use, as the cutting assembly rotates along direction 18, scoring tips held by the scoring tip holder 16, such as scoring tip 20, slice into the logs to define the lengths of the shavings produced by the ring strander, typically about 4 inches in length. A leading edge 22 of the plate knife 12 shaves wood from the logs where the thicknesses of the shavings are determined by a projection distance 24 of the plate knife 12 from the drum. Typically, the plate knife 12 produces shavings having a thickness of about 0.025 inches. As the plate knife 12 shaves the logs, the plate knife 12 directs the shavings along path 26 toward the counter knife 14. The counter knife 14, in turn, causes the shavings to break into wood wafers having a particular range of widths. For example, with a set back distance 28 of about 0.38 inches and a leading edge angle 30 of about 65°, the counter knife 14 causes the shavings to break into wood wafers or strands having a width of between about 1 inch and 2 inches.